{UAH} ACHOLI PEOPLE WANT PEACE BUT THE MEN WITH GUNS DON'T

ACHOLI: PEOPLE WANT PEACE (But the men with guns don't)

By: Fr. Carlos Rodríguez Pader district, 10:00 am, 17th July 2002: Archbishop Odama, Fr. Tarcisio Pazzaglia, Traditional Chief, Rwot Joseph Oywak and the author of this article stop at an LRA road-block deep inside the bush. They are made to descend from their vehicle, searched thoroughly and even made to remove their shoes. "In case you have a bomb", one of the rebels remarks. After passing through two other checkpoints where the same troublesome security checks take place, the religious and cultural leaders arrive at Koyo Lalogi school compound, where rebel commanders Charles Tabuley and Livingstone Opiro welcome them. More than fifty heavily armed rebels stand guard very closely. The meeting lasts two hours and soon after midday the whole group goes back to Pajule Catholic Mission. Ever since July last year a good number of such meetings have taken place in the bush of Acholiland. It hasn't always been easy. From the beginning of its existence, in 1997, the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI) tried to make contact with the high command of the LRA in a bid to convince them to negotiate peace with the Government of Uganda. Some of its members tried to link several times with individuals in Nairobi who claimed to have direct access to Kony in Sudan, and inside Uganda some discreet contacts with some other persons with similar claims proved, after several months, to be blind alleys. During the year 2001, Fr. Pazzaglia and Rwot Oywak finally did manage to meet face to face with LRA officers near Pajule. Not much could be done, especially after the second meeting held on 26th April was violently disrupted by the UPDF and the "Rwot" was slightly wounded. Nevertheless, in October the same year, seventeen fighters -all of them former abductees- led by Major "Oneko-Mon-Ki-Koko" escaped from Kony's base in Sudan. They came out of the bush with the help of local leaders from Pajule Mission, where they stayed for two months under the care of Caritas before being reintegrated with their families. These first experiences encouraged ARLPI to pursue the way of peaceful negotiations in order to put an end to the seventeen year old conflict. However, in January 2002, a huge military build-up in Acholi sent the signal that the Ugandan government was bracing itself for a "final military solution". The Army denied this at first, but it became a reality when in March the UPDF launched "Operation Iron Fist", which was first dubbed as a "rescue mission" and later on as a mission to "destroy the LRA inside Sudan". The religious and cultural leaders of Acholi always opposed this military operation on the grounds that most LRA fighters were abducted children. They warned that the mission would backfire, as the LRA could return to Uganda and unleash a new wave of violence. Predictably, this is what happened. In June 2002 most of the LRA swept back into Northern Uganda. Terror was back in the lives of ordinary people, and stronger than before. But as violence escalated, new opportunities for dialogue emerged. Religious leaders and Acholi parliamentarians, Michael Ochula and Reagan Okumu, received letters from the LRA asking them for meetings in the bush, with a view to opening peace talks with the Government. At the beginning of July, President Museveni gave his go-ahead to Archbishop Odama and retired Anglican bishop of Kitgum, Baker Ochola. The first meeting took place on 14th July in Guru-Guru Hills (Gulu district), and there for seven hours rebel commanders Vincent Ottii, Tolbert Nyeko, Sam Kolo and Caesar Acellam expressed their views, mainly concerns about their own security. Then the second meeting -described at the beginning of this article- took place in Pader district and on the 19th July the team of religious and cultural leaders met with the President to inform him about these first two encounters. Museveni answered with a lengthy letter to the LRA leadership in which he denounced their violent actions but nevertheless expressed his willingness to engage in talks, proposing three venues in South Sudan. Two days later Odama and Ochola delivered the document to Tolbert Nyeko and Sam Kolo, who promised to take the President's letter to their highest command. It took almost one month for the reply to come, but in the meantime LRA commanders Tabuley and Raska released more than two hundred abductees (mostly women and children) and handed them over to the priests of Pajule Mission and to Rwot Oywak. The move contributed to the necessary building of trust, although it was difficult to explain why the LRA were releasing captives one day and abducting more people on the following day. Moreover, the LRA did not show signs of reducing the violence, especially against the innocent civilians: the massacre of 62 people in a village of Mucwini (Kitgum district) on 24th July and the attack against Acholpii camp which killed dozens of Sudanese refugees and sent some 20,000 fleeing in disarray, sent very disturbing signals. On the 21st August, Odama and Ochola received a letter from LRA commanders Nyeko and Kolo and delivered it to President Museveni in response to his earlier communication to the LRA. Two days later, the President went on air on Radio Mega FM in Gulu to announce that he was ready for a time-bound ceasefire provided the LRA stopped abductions, released recent abductees and assembled in some proposed venues, including uninhabited places inside Northern Uganda. The President also named a seven-strong negotiating team led by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Eriya Kategaya. Expectations were suddenly raised very high. Both the LRA and the UPDF started talking of the possibility of a ceasefire. However, the optimistic mood faded in no time. The much-awaited ceasefire never materialised and abductions, ambushes and attacks continued unabated. A new meeting (the fifth) between the bishops and the LRA leaders took place on 26th August, with some new exchanges of letters between the President and the rebels. On the 28th August, Fr. Tarcisio, Fr. Giulio Albanese (director of the MISNA news agency) and the author of this article went for another meeting in Tumangu (Kitgum) in which they expected to convince the rebels to release more abductees and stop attacks so that the peace talks could take place. However, hardly half an hour after the beginning of the meeting the venue came under very heavy attack by the UPDF. The priests narrowly survived and were arrested by the Army and made to spend two days in captivity under appalling conditions. As Archbishop Odama declared soon after "the religious leaders do not hold this incident against anybody. Let us move on and continue with the peace process". However, the fact that some days later the main contact person in Pajule was arrested and beaten by the military, continued to send signals that the "doves" were taking a very risky activity as their efforts could be frustrated by the "hawks". At the beginning of September violence continued to escalate and suddenly meetings with the LRA stopped. To make things worse, it was reported that Kony had ordered his commanders to kill the religious leaders should they again come into direct contact with them. The response of the religious leaders was to organise some public prayers for peace in Gulu and Kitgum, and also to pay a solidarity visit to the religious leaders of Lira, very much disturbed by LRA violence during those months. A peace march to Pece Acoyo, the site of a massacre of 14 civilians some few days earlier, led by a banner "Listen to God: You Shall Not Kill" left no doubt about which values the men of God stood for. The situation continued to deteriorate in October, with two more massacres in Pader district: ninety people were murdered in Amyel on 12th October and two weeks later forty more in villages of Omot sub-county. From the end of December, cultural chiefs Rwot Oywak and Rwot William Lugai continued to meet quietly with the LRA leadership in areas of Pader, and on the 1st March 2003, the two chiefs and the author of this article met again with commander Tabuley, who made them talk with Joseph Kony on radio-call for about one hour. Kony declared a ceasefire from that moment. The team of three rushed back to Gulu, where on the following day, Salim Saleh, on behalf of the Presidential Peace Team (PPT) announced on radio that the Government welcomed the ceasefire announcement. A first face to face meeting between the LRA and members of the PPT was scheduled for the 6th March in Koyo Lalogi, but it could not take place as the UPDF once again entered the area and went on the offensive, launching an aerial bombardment. The President then declared a limited ceasefire in that area and a new date, 14th of March, was proposed for the next meeting. Members of the PPT, together with a UN observer and three religious leaders did go to the bush on that day, only to find that this time it was the LRA who refused to meet them. Nevertheless, communication resumed by phone between the rebels and members of the PPT as well as with the religious leaders. On 28th March Brig. Tolbert Nyeko (Kony's third in command) delivered a ceasefire declaration to Rwot Oywak. It was also the first time that Acholi Religious Leaders delivered a first consignment of food to the LRA, for confidence building and urging them not to launch any attacks in order to get food supplies. Then, two more meetings took place between LRA commanders Nyeko and Raska at the same area of Koyo Lalogi: on 10th of April Rwot Oywak and Fr. Robert Obol (from Pajule Catholic Mission) met with them, and two days later Rwot Oywak was joined by ARLPI co-ordinator Lam Cosmas. However, the much awaited first face-to-face meeting between the LRA and the Presidential Peace Team never materialised, and on 19th April the PPT announced that the UPDF had been directed to resume military operations in Lapul sub-county. With or without limited or unlimited ceasefire declarations, ambushes, abductions and all sorts of violence have continued to be daily occurrences. So far neither military means nor proposals for peace talks have reduced the heavy burden that continues to crush the population in Acholi, where 800,000 people continued to be displaced and children are still being abducted (and often killed in heavy battles with the UPDF). But the religious and cultural leaders have not given up in the struggle. One day, God willing, all these efforts will yield an abundant harvest of peace, which is the Lord's plan for his people. Even if the men with guns still seem to be opposed to it.

 

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"